Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Palawan Immersion 2008 - A Reflection

The Palawan Immersion 2008 was a good and memorable experience sufficient for the groundwork of a personal inspiration to meet the mission and vision of the college. Aside from its pristine and sacred beaches grained with white sands and biodiversity, Palawan is home to genuinely hospitable people and good food. With all these God’s bountiful gifts concocted to create the beautiful province, Palawan had been a good venue for crafting my medical skills and developing my values imbued with the sense of nationalism, patriotism, and service.

To reach Brgy. Ocam-Ocam, our group of ten medical students has to ride the one-hour flight from Manila to Busuanga Island and then drive for another three hours from the arrival airport to a shore where we will take the banca for thirty minutes to reach our final destination. After the long travel of dusts and bumpy road, Ocam-Ocam was worth the weight of our buttocks burdened throughout the whole trip. No pain, no glory. Reaching Ocam-Ocam may not be all about glory but the natural experience close to nature and friendly townspeople was really eventful. The spirit of environmentalism and nationalism shout deep within me to protect this almost perfect, if not perfect, painting of Palawan in front of my almond eyes. Social responsibility rooted strongly in me to preserve this natural treasure for the next generation. Aside from these growing concern for the environment, I have learned about the local culture, esp. the Ocam-Ocam people’s simple life. Aside from daily food and sustenance, the local people value a good education and character. Listening to their stories as they translate how their children cross a mountain to attend to the nearest elementary and high schools, I was really inspired and awed with the kind of diligence and sacrifice exemplified by the schoolchildren. This is commendable! With the goodness and generosity of a Canadian couple, who also happened to be the host of our community immersion, a local elementary school was built in Ocam-Ocam. The long walk across the mountains was put to an end for the elementary students. This generosity of the Canadian couple extends not only to the foundation of the school but also to the local agriculture development and health service of the barangay. For a long time, I thought that these kinds of people were extinct from this highly industrialized and competitive world. Well, I was wrong. It was a worthwhile experience to have a direct personal experience with these good people and made me ask: Why can’t I help alleviate the sufferings of my kababayan when other people, foreign to this country, can? They say “Charity begins at home”. Clearly this Canadian couple treated Ocam-Ocam their home and the Ocam-Ocam people, their family.

Aside from these developments of personal values, my medical skills were also developed. I was fortunate enough to attend to some children and mothers. (Thank you to them for giving me the opportunity to practice my craft!). My skills on history-taking and physical examination grew to a more competitive level. With this medical mission in the community, I realized that a person comes to me for a certain specific complaint but addressing that disease doesn’t end my medical detective job. In my experience rather, with a patient consulting for a skin lesion, I wrote on the diagnosis pad: scabies, lice infestation, dental caries, and common warts. This is one of the theories lectured in classrooms during drowsy hours all about: that some diseases are clumped together in a single person or even community dictated by the socio-economic or even cultural factors. It’s like a package deal!

After the immersion in Ocam-Ocam, we have to visit Puerto Princesa City. We took the 12-hr ship navigation. Unfortunately due to bad weather, our visit and consultation to Sitio Puting Buhangin (our site of community immersion last year) was cancelled. But we were so lucky to have with us Dr. Socrates, Dr. Ding, and the BHWs of Brgy. Mangingisda. Dr. Socrates gave as a tour in the Palawan Provincial Hospital and the BAHATALA, which he founded. His stories are very much inspiring. I look up to him as a good model. He is an embodiment of a five-star physician the college is dreaming about for her students. His expertise extends up to the field of geology, writing journal articles in both local and international publications. Another good role model for medical students is Dr. Ding. The Agape Rural Program is her brainchild. She is very much active in the delivery of health services to the different islands of the archipelago. She is also a well recognized and multi-awarded doctor in the international scene. In the course of our immersion, our group has been consulting with her. Before we conclude our immersion, our group met her in her office. She facilitated a discussion on our learning experiences and a synthesis of our immersion activities. Dr. Ding is an epitome of the saying: if there’s a will there’s a way. She wants health delivered to the far-flung areas. Apparently, with the help and support she outsourced from several charitable institutions, she was able to realize her dream for the underserved. Lastly, our experience with the BHWs of Brgy. Mangingisda provided an image of condition of health system in their barangay. They have a good referral system and provide a quality health service to their community. With the short time we have with them, they were able to discuss to us Herbal Medicine which they advocate in their barangay. With the ten DOH-endorsed medicinal plants, they were able to treat a good number of symptoms and diseases. They also showed us live specimens plants which were homegrown in a small garden in front of their health center. They were also able to produce their own packaged medicinal products out for sale very cheaply and reasonably priced. Their barangay relates an excellent example of good health delivery system. When good leadership, teamwork and service comes hand-in-hand in the community, nothing is impossible. For Brgy. Maningisda, this worked! With the up-close experience with Dr. Soc, Dr. Ding, and the BHWs, I realized that we, Filipinos, still have hope for a brighter future. Philippines can still wake up from the long deep slumber and rise up as a strong nation in the face of the next generations.

With the medical education I am receiving now from the premier National University subsidized by the government fund anchored on the taxes of the Filipino people, I have the unwritten responsibility to give back to my countrymen. But with the ten-day experience in Palawan, the foundation of this social responsibility was fortified and braced. I became more willing to serve locally and forget the lure of honey and green pastures. The Ocam-Ocam community paints a picture of the Filipino people who are very much loving and deserving for a quality health service. Interestingly, Palawan Immersion this year (and even other immersions of this kind), for the second time, was really unforgettable and values-changing.

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